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FHE CZECHOSLOVAK STATE 




CHARLES PERGLER 






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THE CZECHOSLOVAK STATE 



THE 
CZECHOSLOVAK 

STATE 



BY 

CHARLES PERGLER 

»« 

Commissioner of the Czechoslovak Republic 
in the United States 





NEW YORK 
CZECHOSLOVAK ARTS CLUB 

1919 



irintedfrom "Asia," Ar^s^^ \^ 



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Journal of the American Asiatic Association^ 

Third Imp?'ession 



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THOMAS G. MASARYK 

PRESIDENT OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC 




Copyright Harris &" Ewing 



THE CZECHOSLOVAK STATE 
I 

DURING the first three years of the 
I World War the heavy hand of Aus- 
tro-Hungarian despotism, reinforced 
by the mailed fist of Prussia, permitted nothing 
in the Czechoslovak lands that even remotely 
resembled a free expression of opinion. But as 
soon as the gripof the Central Powers began to 
weaken, the nation was able again to give ex- 
pression to its real attitude. It was then that Dr. 
Jan Herben contributed to the famous Czech 
daily, the Ndrodni Listy of Prague, an article 
declaring that international law cannot pre- 
vent the birth of a new state, and that the time 
of proclaiming its maturity and capacity to 
manage its affairs is a nation's own preroga- 
tive. But, Dr. Herben says, though the claims 
of a state to existence arise from its very birth, 
its existence cannot prevent a certain amount 
of disarrangement in the relations of the pre- 
existing states. The new state must be inscribed 
on the international register. International law 
must decide whether the new state is to 
gain admission into the society of old states, 
whether its culture entitles it to become a law- 



C 6 ] 
ful member, and whether economically and 
otherwise it can command the respeft a sov- 
ereign state is entitled to. The corporate stock 
of Norway in 1905 commanded full respeft: 
in 1913 that of Albania was very low. Inter- 
national recognition is dependent on a sort of 
examination. The group of old states makes 
inquiries as to whether the new-born child has 
the capacity of becoming a member on equal 
terms, and especially whether it does not 
bring with it the germs of future disturbance. 
What would be the result of such an exami- 
nation, should the Czechoslovak Republic be 
subjefted to one.f^ 

Many of the questions asked by Dr. Her- 
ben have been answered, and they have been 
answered in the forms prescribed by inter- 
national law. All the great Allied powers, and 
the United States, have recognized the right 
of the Czechoslovak nation to independence 
and sovereign statehood. There is in existence 
a recognized Czechoslovak Government. The 
United States and her associates in the war 
are committed to the policy of reestablishing 
the ancient Czech state, adjusted to modern 
conditions, and in harmony with the princi- 
ples of nationality. Before so committing them- 
selves, these governments naturally ascer- 



C 7 2 
tained whether not only as a matter of justice, 
but also as a matter of pra6lical statesman- 
ship this step was possible and advisable, and 
whether the new state is endowed with all 
the elements that make for permanency and 
stability. In the very nature of things, the 
general public cannot always inform itself as 
rapidly as governments, and so it occasion- 
ally happens that questions are asked such as: 
Have the Czechoslovaks the innate ability to 
build, form, or create a state? Have they the 
culture that is necessary for an independent 
nation in the modern world ? Have they the 
economic resources necessary for independent 
existence? I shall endeavor to answer briefly 
some of these and other questions which ne- 
cessarily are in the minds of many to-day. 



II 

Mr. John W. Burgess of Columbia University, 
in his great work, Political Science and Com- 
parative Constitutional Law, lays down the 
proposition that the Teutonic nations are the 
political nations par excellence, and that the 
Slavs and Greeks lack in political capacity. 
The history of Bohemia furnishes a refutation 
of this assumption. 

As early as the seventh century, when the 
historical data relative to Bohemia begin, we 
find evidences of an established Bohemian 
state. In the eleventh century Bohemia, Mora- 
via, Silesia, and Poland were united under Bfe- 
tislav I, King of Bohemia, and, in the words of 
Count Luetzow, the eminent historian, "The 
idea of a West Slav Empire seemed on the 
point of being realized, but the Germans 
stepped in to prevent theformationof a power- 
ful Slav State on their borders.'' Otokar II, of 
the House of Pfemysl, for a time extended 
Bohemian rule from the Adriatic to the Baltic. 
Under the '* National King,'' George of Po- 
debrad, in the fifteenth century, Bohemia was 
a European power of the first rank. 

All these achievements, attained under sov- 
ereigns belonging to houses of Czech origin. 



C 9 ] 
certainly show a high degree of political tal- 
ent. The fa6l that later Bohemia succumbed to 
overwhelming brute force is not proof of want 
of political capacity. 

Perhaps the best proof of the political power 
of the Czechoslovak nation lies in the way 
its revolution against Austria-Hungary was 
condu6led and consummated. Like all non- 
German nations, it was caught unprepared. 
But without any cue from conventional po- 
litical leadership, the people to a man adopted 
an anti-Austrian and anti-German attitude. 
The Czechoslovak soldier refused to fight, 
and went over to the Allied armies in order 
to reenlist with the forces of modern civiliza- 
tion, and even, as in Russia, to form an army 
of his own. The Czechoslovak National Coun- 
cil very promptly became the dire6ling body 
of these armies, which submitted voluntarily 
to its authority. Under this voluntary discipline 
Czechoslovak troops performed exploits, the 
story of which will go down in history as one 
of the noblest classics of all ages. Here surely 
we have conclusive proof of the ability of the 
Czechoslovak peoples to govern themselves. 
At this writing reports from Prague show that 
the transfer of power from Austrian hands to 
that of the Czech authorities took place quietly 



I 10 1 

and without any excesses, so that even the 
Berliner Tageblatt declares that the Czech re- 
volution occurred with dignity, and in a man- 
ner showing the high state of Czech culture. 



Ill 

What of the spiritual values created by the 
Czechs in the past and present, what of Czech 
culture? It is historically established that while 
the Czechs were ruled by their own kings, 
and while they were unmolested in their 
affairs, the nation prospered and grew intel- 
leftually in all respefts. Bohemian history is 
replete with manifestations of idealism. Spir- 
itual values have never been underestimated 
by the Czechs. The Hussite war, while it had 
its social and economic background, was fought 
for a religious and civic ideal, and for the 
rights of the Czech language against the ag- 
gression of the Germans. 

Palacky,the great Bohemian historian, may 
have been swayed by national pride, but never- 
theless his contention that the Hussite war is 
"the first war in the world's history that was 
fought not for material interest, but for intel- 
leftual ones, for ideas,'' is not groundless. 

It must always be remembered that theCzech 
John Hus preceded Luther by a century; that 
Comenius ( Komensky ) was one of the great- 
est educators of all ages ; that Peter Chelcicky 
preceded Tolstoy by four hundred years ; that 



the Czech warrior Zizka is regarded as one 
of the originators of modern strategy. 

In the second half of the nineteenth century, 
in spite of unexam pled persecution and oppres- 
sion by the governments of Vienna and Buda- 
pest, the nation reached a cultural level sur- 
passing that of any other nationality in Austria- 
Hungary. In literature and arts it is second 
to none. In modern times it has produced at 
least three poets of the first rank, Vrchlicky, 
Cech, and Machar. Of the musicians and com- 
posers, one need only to mention Smetana, 
Dvorak, and Kovafovic. Of the novelists there 
is a legion, and they have given the world 
real works of art. In philosophy, the names of 
Masaryk, Krejci, and Drtina are known to all 
scholars. 

According to the official statistics of the 
United States Immigration Bureau, of all the 
immigrants to the United States the Czechs 
show one of the lowest percentages of illiter- 
acy. Thus, of the 8439 Czech arrivals in this 
country in the year 1912, there were only 75 
illiterates, about .008875 per cent. Almost all 
the Czech immigrants are skilled workmen or 
farmers. Their eagerness for knowledge and 
education is well known. As an illustration, 
in the schools of the forty northern and east- 



i: 13 -2 

ern counties of Nebraska there are no less 
than three hundred teachers of Czech parent- 
age, several of whom are superintendents of 
schools. In Chicago, their natural ethnic cen- 
tre in America, there are hundreds of Czech 
physicians, lawyers, teachers, and architefts. 
The buildings of the State of Illinois at the 
Panama Exposition in San Francisco were 
designed by a Czech architeft. Statistics also 
show that crimes of the graver sort are prac- 
tically non-existent among Czechoslovaks. 

The Czechoslovaks have their faults and 
vices, no doubt, the same as all other national- 
ities, but political juggling is not one of them. 
The Czechoslovak Declaration of Indepen- 
dence of November 15, 1915, declares that 
" We take the side of the fighting Slav nations 
and their Allies, without regard to vi6lory or 
defeat, because right is on their side. The 
problem which side is right in this fatal war is 
a question of principles and of political morals, 
a question which at present no honest and sin- 
cere statesman, no conscientious and thinking 
nation, can evade.'' 

This statement, I think, represents the best 
Czech thought on the subje6l of politics and 
political morals. To them politics is notagame, 
but an expression of the nation's hopes and 



C 14 3 
desires. The best proof of this lies in the faft 
that the manifesto was issued when the Rus- 
sian army was forced to retreat from the Car- 
pathians, and when the situation, from the 
Allies' point of view, was gloomy indeed. 

Freedom regained, liberty achieved, such a 
nation will add still more to the world's spir- 
itual treasures. 



IV 

But, we are told, the Czechoslovak State will be 
a small one, and, as a result, its existence pre- 
carious, assuming that the world will remain 
in anything like its present condition of inter- 
national disorganization. 

In the first place, as modern states go, 
the new state will not be a small one, since 
it has a population of about twelve millions, 
and consists of what are commonly called the 
Bohemian countries, namely, Bohemia, Mo- 
ravia, and Silesia, to which will be added the 
Slovak distrifts of North Hungary, from Ung- 
var, through Kaschau along the ethnographi- 
cal boundaries down the river Ipoly (Eipel) 
to the Danube, including Pressburg and the 
whole Slovak north to the frontier line of 
Hungary. The Slovaks are the branch of 
the nation that has suffered under Magyar 
domination. Time and again they have ac- 
cepted the programme of Czechoslovak union. 
The extent of the new state will be about 
50,000 English square miles: Belgium has 
1 1 ,373 square miles. It is obvious that the new 
state can hardly be classed as small. 

Moreover, the belief in the necessity for 
large states, prevalent in a certain school of 



C 16 J 
economic and political theorists, and largely 
based upon teachings of Karl Marx, is one of 
the superstitions that periodically appear, in 
order to be abandoned upon a sober second 
thought. The reaftion against it has already 
set in, as evidenced by an address delivered 
some time ago by Mr. L. P. Jacks, editor of the 
Hibbert Journal, before the London Sociologi- 
cal Society. 

Mr. Jacks thinks that before long w^e shall 
see the rise of a new criticism of the whole 
idea of government. What, he asks, are the 
limits of government.^ Will not the tendency 
be to eliminate a number of unmanageable 
propositions from the scope of human design .^^ 
Mr. Jacks believes that the next great move- 
ment of political thought will be in the direc- 
tion of restri6ling rather than expanding, 
concentrating rather than spreading, the ob- 
jects of social endeavor. The deeper thought, 
he says, starts from the human end of the 
problem; its first principle is that " industrial 
civilization is made for man, not man for in- 
dustrial civilization.'' Viscount Bryce thinks 
that possibly some modern states have be- 
come too big to manage. Mr. Justice Louis D. 
Brandeis once showed pretty conclusively 
that even under modern conditions certain 



business concerns can become so large that 
their successful administration becomes al- 
most physically impossible. May this not be 
equally true of states ? 

The theory that small states and nations 
cannot succeed is not borne out by history. 
Even prior to the war there were in Europe 
twenty-seven states, and the great majority 
of these were small. There were only six of 
the so-called great powers: Russia, Germany, 
Austria-Hungary , England, France, and Italy. 
Portugal, Denmark, Switzerland, Bulgaria, 
Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Serbia, Greece, 
Holland, Montenegro, and Turkey all are, or 
were, smaller than the Czechoslovak Repub- 
lic. The last named will hold in Europe the 
eighth place, only England, Germany, Po- 
land, France, Italy, Spain, and Russia being 
larger. 



In so far as any state is economically and 
commercially self-sustaining, that of the Cze- 
choslovaks will be able to stand upon its own 
feet. Even prior to the war, economically and 
financially Bohemia was one of the richest of 
the Austrian ''provinces/' Of the burden of 
Austrian taxation, 62.7 per cent was borne by 
the Czech countries, while the rest of Austria 
carried only 37.3 per cent. And now, freed 
from oppressive taxation, levied in order to 
lighten the burden upon purely Austrian dis- 
tri6ls incapable of maintaining themselves, the 
Czechs will be even richer. 

The Bohemian lands surpassed what were 
once the other Austrian lands in the produc- 
tion of grain. Of the grain lands of the for- 
mer Austrian Empire, thirty-eight per cent is 
found in Bohemia. Eighty-three per cent of 
Austrian coal is mined in the Bohemian lands. 
Sixty per cent of the Austrian iron is located 
■ there. Ninety per cent, if not more, of the beet 
sugar faftories of Austria are located in the 
lands of the Bohemian Crown ; the textile in- 
dustry is of large proportions, and leather, 
paper, furniture, and eleftro-technical indus- 
tries are of importance. 



C 19 ] 

The Encylopaedia Americana states the in- 
dustrial resources of Bohemia as follows: 

*'The industry of Bohemia, favored by its 
central situation, has long rendered it one 
of the most important governments of the 
Austrian Empire. Spinning and v^eaving are 
extensively carried on in the northern and 
southeastern distrifts; manufa6lures of lace, 
ribbons, metal and v^ood w^ork, chemical pro- 
du6ls, and other branches of skilled industry 
are also largely developed. Pottery, porce- 
lain, glassw^are, cutting of precious stones, 
give employment to many hands. The glass- 
ware of Bohemia alone, which is known all 
over Europe, employs 50,000 workers. Large 
quantities of beer (Pilsener) of the kind 
known as lager are exported. Prague, the 
capital, is the centre of the manufaftures and 
of the commerce of the country. The largest 
towns are Prague, Pilsen,Reichenberg, Bud- 
weis,Teplitz, Aussig, and Eger. For internal 
intercourse there are excellent highways, ex- 
tending to ten thousand miles, and several 
important lines of railway leading both south- 
east to Vienna and northwest to Dresden.'' 

Slovakia, forming the northern part of what 
we used to know as Hungary, has been very 
much neglefted, its mineral resources still 



remaining undeveloped. United to the Czech 
countries, it will be a source of strength to the 
Czechoslovak State. In 1913 one-third of all 
the iron, gold, and silver mined in Hungary 
w^as mined in Slovakia. 

These figures are sufficient to show that 
Austria aftually was a parasite living on the 
wealth of the Czech countries. 



VI 

But of what avail, we may be asked, will all 
these resources prove, since Bohemia has no 
port, having a seashore only in Shakespeare? 

Switzerland shows how a state can prosper, 
though land-locked. In any event, with mod- 
ern means of communication, dire6l access 
to the sea is not as important as it was in the 
past. The sea, after all, is a means of commu- 
nication: whether the means of communica- 
tion be the ocean or the railroad, the means do 
not make so much difference. 

The demand for what has been called eco- 
nomic rights of way for land-locked states is 
becoming more and more insistent, and there 
is back of it all the prestige of the United 
States of America, for in his message of Jan- 
uary 8, 1917, the President formulated the 
principle that free access to the sea must be 
granted to inland countries. 

The idea of a corridor between the South 
Slav and Czechoslovak states has been advo- 
cated. Such a corridor would give the latter 
access to the Serbo-Croatian ports. This is ad- 
mittedly a difficult question, but it is obvious 
that for many reasons it would be well so to 
arrange the boundaries as to make these two 



C 22 ] 

Slav commonwealths neighbors. The idea has 
been attacked as imperialistic and contrary to 
the principle of nationality. Whatever may 
be thought of it, it is not contrary to the lat- 
ter as is contended by some, because the strip 
in question, consisting of two present Hunga- 
rian counties, and a part of a third, contains 
a large number of Slavs. 

In the north the new state will border on 
a united Poland, with whom relations will cer- 
tainly be very friendly. This will assure an 
outlet to the Baltic. 

Another way of gaining access to seaports 
is by internationalization of such waterways as 
the Elbe and the Danube. It is probable that 
internationalization of waterways will be a 
feature of the coming international readjust- 
ment, and that a free Danube will conneft the 
Czechoslovaks with the Jugoslavs and Ruma- 
nians in the south. 



VII 



Lately, both in America and Great Britain, 
a certain apprehension has been expressed 
over the possible fate of the German mi- 
nority in Bohemia. In Central and Eastern 
Europe hardly any state can be constru6led 
without national minorities. The rights of 
these minorities must be safeguarded, of 
course. But one cannot help remarking that 
the gentlemen who now feel that the Czech 
majority might oppress the German minority, 
seldom, if ever, exhibited the solicitude they 
now show when it was a question of the Ger- 
man minority oppressing the Czech majority. 
The official Austrian statistics showed the 
following distribution of population according 
to nationality: 



Slavs : 



Latins, 



Czechoslovaks 
Jugoslavs 
Poles 
Ruthenes 

Italians 
Rumanians 



Germans : 
Magyars: 
Others : 



8.4 million 
6.8 million 
5 million 
4 million 

0.8 million \ 
3.2 million J 

12 million \ 
10 million j 

Total 



24.2 million 



million 



22 million 



7l 



million 
million 



[ 24 ] 
But these official statistics are notoriously 
false, and grossly exaggerated in favor of the 
Germans and Magyars. It must be remem- 
bered that the Austrian census is not based 
upon nationality, but upon what is called the 
language of intercourse ( Umgangsprache) , 
and that, furthermore, in distrifts with large 
Czech minorities, or even a6lual majorities, 
economic pressure was brought to bear upon 
workmen dependent upon German masters 
of industry to declare their language of inter- 
course to be German. It has been ascertained 
by the Czech National Council in Prague that 
in western and northwestern Bohemia, which 
the Germans claim to be wholly German ter- 
ritory, there are 271 ,542 members of various 
Czech national organizations. Private but ab- 
solutely reliable statistics indicate that the per- 
centage of Germans in Bohemia can hardly 
be more than twenty per cent, as against the 
thirty-seven percent shown by the official cen- 
sus. Conditions in Hungary are even worse. 
There the Magyars officially form fifty-one 
per cent of the population, but hold four hun- 
dred and five seats in the Parliament, out of 
a total of four hundred and thirteen. The fol- 
lowing table, compiled by authorities on the 
ethnical situation in Austria-Hungary, affords 



C 25 ] 
a more reliable basis forjudging conditions in 
Austria-Hungary than the official census. 



Slavs: 


Czechoslovaks 


10 million 






Jugoslavs 
Poles 


7.5 million 
5 million 


- 27 million 




Ruthenes 


4.5 million 




Latins: 


Italians 


1 million \ .... 

\ 5 million 
4 million ' 




Rumanians 


Germans: 
Magyars: 




10 million ^ 

.... Ms million 
8 million ^ 


Others : 




1 million 






Total 


51 million 



I show these figures merely to indicate that 
the problem is not as difficult as the Germans 
endeavor to make it appear. In any event, 
because the Germans and Magyars oppress 
the Czechoslovaks, it does not follow that the 
latter will oppress the former. It is a signifi- 
cant fa6l that during the whole of the nine- 
teenth century not a single Czech statesman 
advocated, even indireftly, the oppression of 
other peoples. On the contrary, the Czechs 
always emphasized the fa6l that they would 
accord their German citizens complete civil 
rights, which, of course, include cultural 
rights. The great Czech historian and states- 
man, Palacky, said that we never had, nor 
ever shall have, the intention of oppressing 



C 26 J 
other people; that, true to our chara6ler, re- 
jefting all desire for the revenge of past 
wrongs, we extend our right hand to all our 
neighbors who are prepared to recognize the 
equality of all nations without regard to their 
size or political power. Havlicek, the Czech 
leader in 1 848, said that oppression never pro- 
duces good results, and in time brings ven- 
geance upon the heads of its own originators. 
However, it should be pointed out here 
that the principle of self-determination of na- 
tions is frequently confused with that of the 
rights of national minorities. In the Prdvnicke 
Rozhledy of Prague for May, 1 9 1 8 , the Czech 
jurist. Dr. J. Kalab, discusses the claim some- 
times made that the idea of self-determina- 
tion of nations cannot be realized, because in 
almost every territory there are found mem- 
bers of foreign nations. Those who reason in 
this way, he declares, fail to differentiate be- 
tween the principle of self-determination of 
nations and the principle of civic hberty. Both 
are derived from the principle of people's sov- 
ereignty. But civic liberty determines the legal 
status of each individual, whereas the self- 
determination of nations determines the status 
of entire nations. The nation as a whole, as 
a cultural unit, cannot be subordinate to any 



C 27 n 
one else. But that does not mean that every 
individual whom fate might have blow^n into 
the midst of another nation is entitled to de- 
mand the right of self-determination. He, like 
every one else, is entitled to civic liberty. 

Self-determination of nations is something 
substantially different from national auton- 
omy. National autonomy is the right of citi- 
zens of a certain nationality to have the con- 
ditions of their cultural development guaran- 
teed in a state ruled by another culture, or 
the manner in which the state shall guaran- 
tee to members of a foreign nationality their 
civic liberty. Self-determination, on the other 
hand, constitutes the demand that the nation 
as a whole shall have the opportunity to make 
use of all its powers in the service of its na- 
tional interests so that it may enforce its indi- 
viduality in all directions, including the life of 
the state, of course within the limitations set 
by international law. 

The Czechoslovaks have pledged them- 
selves to grant the German minority in Bo- 
hemia full liberty and equal rights. In fa6t, 
they are in favor of an international law pro- 
te6ling the rights of national minorities, and 
it may be one of the fun6lions of the future 
League of Nations to see to it that national 



c 28 :] _ 

minorities are prote6led against attempts at 
denationalization. 

Czechoslovak minorities outside of the state 
will also exist, and, judging from pastGerman 
history, will need this protection. Let it never 
be forgotten that there is a Czech minority of 
at least 400,000 in Vienna, and that there will 
be Czechoslovak minorities elsewhere in lower 
Austria, as well as in Hungary, even though 
the latter be reduced as near as possible to its 
proper ethnical boundaries. 



VIII 

While fully conscious that the future Czecho- 
slovak State will be strong, and not wholly 
powerless against aggression, yet we under- 
stand that if the independence of smaller na- 
tions is to be safeguarded, a new international 
arrangement must be substituted for the here- 
tofore prevailing system of shifting alliances. 

During the demonstrations in Prague on 
May 17, 1918, a resolution was passed at a 
meeting described by the Czech press as the 
Congress of Oppressed Nations of Austria- 
Hungary. Among those who adopted the res- 
olution were representatives of all Czechoslo- 
vak and Jugoslav parties, Rumanian and Ital- 
ian deputies, and Polish representatives. The 
resolution includes the following paragraph : 

"The representatives of Slav and Latin na- 
tions who for centuries past have suffered 
under foreign oppression, assembled in Prague 
this seventeenth day of May, 1918, united in 
a common purpose to do everything in their 
power to assure full liberty and independence 
to their respective nations after this terrible 
war. They are agreed that a better future for 
their nations will be founded and assured by 
a world democracy, by a real and sovereign 



c 30 :] 

national self-goverjiment, and by a universal 
League of Nations endowed with the necessary 
authority." 

The jurisdi6lion, authority, and power of a 
League of Nations will be largely a matter of 
growth. It is not to be expe6led that the League 
will immediately possess the authority it ulti- 
mately should achieve. Until such time all na- 
tions that have fought together in the present 
war must hold themselves in readiness to re- 
sist new schemes of German aggression, for 
it cannot be expe6led that the German, nur- 
tured for decades upon schemes of conquest, 
will immediately abandon ideas which for so 
long a time have been the motive power of 
German statesmanship, including the German 
Social Democracy, led by such men as Schei- 
demann and Cunow. The latter, in 1914, in 
an article in the Sozialistiche Monatshefte, en- 
deavored to prove the proposition that small 
nations, such as Belgium, have lost their right 
to exist. 



IX 

Of the constitution of the new state perhaps 
little need be said. The Czechoslovaks are a 
democratic nation, and the Declaration of In- 
dependence issued by the Czechoslovak Pro- 
visional Government on 06lober 19, 1918, 
succin6lly outlines the future constitution in so 
far as this can be done prior to the decisions of 
the Constituent Assembly. It states: 

" The Czechoslovak State shall be a repub- 
"lic. In constant endeavor for progress it w^ill 
" guarantee complete freedom of conscience, 
''religion and science, literature and art, 
" speech, the press, and the right of assembly 
''and petition. The Church shall be separated 
"from the State. Our democracy shall rest on 
"universal suffrage; women shall be placed 
"on an equal footing with men politically, 
" socially and culturally. The rights of the mi- 
"nority shall be safeguarded by proportional 
"representation; national minorities shall en- 
"joy equal rights. The government shall be 
"parliamentary in form and shall recognize 
"the principles of initiative and referendum. 
"The standing army will be replaced by mi- 
"litia. 

" The Czechoslovak Nation will carry out 



C 32 ] 
*' far-reaching social and economic reforms; 
'*the large estates will be redeemed for home 
'* colonization, patents of nobility will be abol- 
''ished. Our nation will assume its part of the 
''Austro-Hungarian pre-war public debt; — 
'' the debts for this war we leave to those who 
''incurred them. - 

"In its foreign policy the Czechoslovak 
" Nation will accept its full share of respon- 
"sibility in the reorganization of Eastern 
"Europe. It accepts fully the democratic and 
"social principle of nationality and subscribes 
"to the doftrine that all covenants and trea- 
"ties shall be entered into openly and frankly 
" without secret diplomacy. 

"Our constitution shall provide an efficient, 
"rational, and just government, which will 
" exclude all special privileges and prohibit 
"class legislation." 



X 

The Czechoslovaks stand before the public 
opinion of the world with a firm consciousness 
that their cause is just, and that they have 
fought for it cleanly and fairly. They proudly 
maintain that their shield is without a stain. 
They are simply asking and fighting for 
what is due them, and for nothing more. They 
have never been guilty of oppression ; they 
have never sought what properly belongs to 
their neighbors. They have proved their case 
to the very hilt. The white and red flag of the 
Czechoslovak State has been raised, never to 
come down again. 



Washington^ D. C. 
December^ 191 



B. B. Updike^ The Merry mount Press ^ Boston 



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